Finding loopholes in God's law

“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?” Matthew 23:16-17
The Pharisees were professional law-keepers. They knew the law inside-out and back-to-front. They added their own laws surrounding it, like a safety fence to keep them from even getting close to breaking God’s law. But all this knowledge led to them developing an attitude of superiority. And they started to nitpick over the law, so that if it wasn’t convenient for them to keep it, they could wheedle their way out. Jesus gives one example here. In Num. 30:2, God’s law says, “When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.” Yet the Pharisees created a loophole. They said, if someone swore by the temple, they could break their oath, because they didn’t swear by the gold of the temple. Basically, it was the formula of the oath, not the intent, that was binding. They deliberately ignore the point of the law – that we must be honest at all times. Another example Jesus gives is in Matt. 15:5-6, where God’s law said that anyone who disrespects their father or mother was to be put to death, but the Pharisees came up with a trump card: a person did not have to obey their father and mother, by saying that the thing their parents were asking for was ‘Corban’ (a gift dedicated to God).
People do the same thing today. They will say things like, ‘The Bible doesn’t say anything against ... – so it must be ok.’ They might apply this to pornography, taking drugs, etc. Granted, the Bible might not saying anything specifically about that thing, but it does condemn something else that encompasses it. Pornography falls into the categories of lewdness (‘impurity’, Gal. 5:19, Eph. 5:3, Col. 3:5) and sexual immorality (Rom. 13:13, Gal. 5:19, Eph 5:3, Col. 3:5, 1 Thess. 4:3). Taking drugs is associated with the Greek word pharmakia, translated witchcraft or sorcery (Gal. 5:20). We shouldn’t be looking for loopholes in the Bible to permit some sin or other. We should be fleeing from sin, and seeking to do only what is pleasing to the Lord.